The importance of cleanliness has long been recognized, particularly in the fields of heath-care, food preparation, and laboratories, to name but a few. The practice of surgical scrubbing by surgeons and other operating room personnel is probably the epitome of efforts to cleanse the hands and forearms of persons working in sterile environments. Although manual hand-washing can appear to be effective, medical experts have concluded that automated hand-washing increases hand-washing compliance and reduces the risk of infection.
Touchless automated hand-washing devices are designed to wash the hands of the user and provide the proper amount of antimicrobial solution in a set time. Additionally, these systems diminish the deterrent effects of friction and irritation associated with frequent manual hand-washing. Notwithstanding the benefits and convenience of automated washing devices, difficulties still exist with verifying employee or staff use of the washing apparatus. Moreover, existing systems lack the ability to provide a complete washing. It would be advantageous to have a system that provides automated washing that may be operable to verify usage by the intended users. Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a system and method for providing automated washing, which may be operable to monitor compliance with one or more hygiene requirements.
In addition to the forgoing, problems also exist with spread of bacteria or other contagions throughout a facility based on the movement of persons within the facility. Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a system and/or method for tracking and enforcing hygiene requirements that accounts for movement of individuals associated with a facility.
In designing an automated cleaning system a number of features should be considered. For example, the automated cleaning system should be capable of monitoring user compliance with a washing requirement and also reporting non-compliance with hygiene protocol. The monitoring system should include a cleaning station associated with a facility, an identification apparatus being operable to identify the user when the user is within a predetermined distance from the cleaning station, cleaning station operations monitor, a memory being operable to record data associated with use of the cleaning station by a user; and an administration computer being operable to generate a compliance report based on a portion of the data associated with a user's use of the cleaning station and with a user's movement throughout the facility.
When designing an automated cleaning system, a method to monitor hygiene compliance should also be provided. The method for monitoring hygiene compliance should include detecting movement of an individual from one boundary zone to another (a hygiene zone should be defined as portion of a facility assigned a hygiene level value from a range of possible hygiene level values), updating a working radius value associated with the individual (the working radius value should correspond to a hygiene level value associated with a section of the facility in which the individual is currently located), comparing the working radius value to a hygiene radius value associated with the individual (the hygiene radius value should be indicative of the individual's current state of hygiene), and registering a hygiene radius violation if the individual's working radius value is greater than the individual's hygiene radius value.